First Meeting
by Seryan Parks
Summary: A genderbent retelling of the first time Cinder and Kai met, told from Kai's perspective. For the TLC Ship Weeks theme Genderbend.


Whatever Kai was expecting when she had sought out Linh Cinder's booth at the New Beijing market, it wasn't what she planned. The booth was empty. She waited patiently for a moment for the man to finish whatever he was doing and return to his booth, but she eventually grew tired of waiting and plunked Nainsi down on the mechanic's table.

The sudden thunk startled the man, and he hit his head on the table as he sat up. The scowl on his face was instantly replaced by an expression of surprise, and in that instant, Kai knew that her cover was blown. "I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't realize anyone was back there."

The man lurched up in an awkward bow. Getting a good look at his face, Kai realized that he was really not much more than a boy, approximately her own age. He had a grease splotch on his forehead, and all over his clothing. "Y-your Highness!" he stammered.

Kai shrank in a little, pulling up the hood of her grey sweatshirt. "Can we not, uhm," here she made a gesture of zipping her lips, "on the Highness stuff?"

The man stared at her, wide-eyed. "Of course! How can I, are you, uh-"

"I'm looking for a Linh Cinder," the princess said. "Is he around?"

"I'm Linh Cinder," the man said.

"You're Linh Cinder?" Kai did a double-take. He was really young.

"Yes your High-"

"The mechanic?" Kai knew that her interruption was rude, but really? Eighteen years old, tops. The best mechanic in New Beijing was at most eighteen years old.

"How can I help you?" Linh Cinder smiled, a little nervously.

Kai grinned back at him. "You're not quite what was I expecting," she remarked.

"Well you're hardly uh..." the man trailed off.

_What you expected the crown princess to look like_, Kai mentally filled in.

He picked up Nainsi and looked her over. "What seems to be wrong with the android, your Highness?" the mechanic asked. He seemed very flustered but did not blush.

"I can't get her to turn on. She was working fine one day, and the next, nothing." Kai made a little 'kapoof' gesture with her hands.

Cinder ran his hands over Nainsi, as if trying to read the reason for her malfunction written on her glossy white finish. "Hmm... have you had problems with her before?"

"No," Kai replied. "She gets a monthly check-up from the royal mechanics and this is the first real problem she's ever had."

While the mechanic fussed with the android, Kai looked around the small booth. The shelves were lined with parts, only some of which she was familiar with. Hover belts and screws and steel platings and greasy tools were everywhere. On the table in front of her was a collection of tools and a small robotic foot. Kai picked it up and looked at it. The foot was small and rusty, and red and yellow wires sprouted from the top. She jiggled a couple of the toes and wiped a grease smear off of it. Cinder was probably repairing the foot, she guessed. It probably belonged to an escort droid, or perhaps a cyborg. A small cyborg. A child, probably.

"Aren't you hot?"

"Dying. But I'm trying to be inconspicuous."

"Why aren't the royal mechanics fixing her?" he asked.

"They tried but couldn't figure it out. Someone suggested I bring her to you. they say you're the best mechanic in New Beijing. I was expecting an old man."

"Do they?" he murmured. After a moment of fiddling with Nainsi he said, "Sometimes they just get worn out. Maybe it's time to upgrade to a new model."

"I'm afraid I can't do that. She contains top-secret information. It's a matter of national security that I retrieve it before anybody else does." Kai stared Cinder in the eye, very seriously, for a whole three seconds before her face split into a grin.

"I'm just joking. Nainsi was my first android. It's sentimental."

"National security. Funny. Tutor 8.6 model... She looks to be in pristine condition." Without warning, Cinder roughly thunked Nainsi against the table and the pushed the power button. At Kai's somewhat horrified expression, she remarked, "You'd be surprised how often that works."

"Are you _sure_ you're Linh Cinder, the mechanic?"

A small android approached the booth, giving the Kai of running even though it rolled on treads."Cinder! I've got it!" it shouted, its voice fairly androgynous but leaning towards male. It slammed a foot down on the table in Nainsi's shadow. The android continued to chatter to the mechanic, taking no notice of Kai. "It's a huge improvement over the old one, and only lightly used! The wiring looks compatible as is, plus I was able to get the dealer down to 600 univs!"

"Good work, Iko. Nuyin Scafu will be delighted to have a new foot for his escort." Kai had to agree, if the tiny foot she was fiddling with earlier was the foot that was going to be replaced. Cinder put the foot somewhere under the table, out of Kai's sight.

"...I don't compute." the android sounded confused. Kai had known the droid for about ten seconds, but already that little andriod had displayed more emotion in ten seconds than Konn Torin did in a week.

"Iko, please play our respects to our customer, her Imperial Highness." Cinder whispered the title so as to not draw undue attention to his booth.

The android, Iko, turned his bulbous white head and his sensor lit up as he registered what he was seeing. "Princess Kaita! You're even more beautiful in person!"

Kai laughed, a little embarassed and flattered.

"Thats enough, Iko. Get in the booth," Cinder ordered. Iko lifted the tablecloth with his pronged arm and rolled in right under the table.

Kai leaned in onto the table, getting a better look at Cinder and Nainsi as Cinder sat down to better look at the andriod. She got a small rush, like she was talking to a friend. "You don't see a personality like that every day. Did you program him yourself?"

"Believe it or not, he came that way. I suspect a programming error, which is probably why my stepmother got him so cheap." Cinder's brown eyes crinkled a little at the corners, and Kaita thought that he had very nice eyes.

"I do NOT have a programming error!" Iko objected, his programmed voice sounding insulted.

"So, what do you think?" Kai guestured to Nainsi's inanimate body.

Cinder brushed some hair out of his face, absently smearing grease from his gloves across his forehead. "I'll need to run her diagnostics. It'll take me a few days, maybe a week?"

"Do you need payment up front?" Kai held her wrist out for Cinder to scan, but the man shook his head.

"No thank you. It will be my honor."

Kai retracted her wrist and covered it with the long droopy sleeve of her grey sweatshirt. "I don't suppose there's any hope of having her done before the festival?" she asked hopefully.

"I don't think that will be a problem, but without knowing what's wrong with her... "

"I know, I know," Kai sighed. "Just wishful thinking."

"How will I contact you when she's ready?" Cinder asked.

"Send a comm to the palace. Or-" Kai grinned mischeviously- "will you be here again next weekend? I could stop by then."

"OH YES we're here every market day, you should come by again thatwouldbelovely." Iko said quickly. Kai smiled at the android- he really was unique.

"You don't need to-" Cinder began, but Kai cut him off.

"It will be my pleasure." She winked at Cinder and left his booth.


End file.
